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NASA Releases Images of Man-Made Crater on Comet

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2011Science2005 deep impact mission, b 17 bomber, coma, comet, comet atmosphere, comet tempel 1, crater, denver, don brownlee, images, joe veverka, jpl, lockheed martin space systems, mission operations, NASA, new terrain, nucleus, pete schultz, stardust, stardust next, stardust spacecraft, tim larson, valentine day

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Stardust spacecraft returned new images of a comet showing a scar resulting from the 2005 Deep Impact mission. The images also showed the comet has a fragile and weak nucleus.

The spacecraft made its closest approach to comet Tempel 1 on Monday, Feb. 14, at 8:40 p.m. PST (11:40 p.m. EST) at a distance of approximately 178 kilometers (111 miles). Stardust took 72 high-resolution images of the comet. It also accumulated 468 kilobytes of data about the dust in its coma, the cloud that is a comet’s atmosphere. The craft is on its second mission of exploration called Stardust-NExT, having completed its prime mission collecting cometary particles and returning them to Earth in 2006. (more…)

Two-timing Spacecraft Has Date with Another Comet

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 20111 commentSciencecomet surface, comet tempel, comets nucleus, jupiter family comet, stardust next, stardust spacecraft, two timing spacecraft

NASA’s Stardust spacecraft, equipped with the University of Chicago’s Dust Flux Monitor Instrument (DFMI), is hurtling at more than 24,000 miles an hour toward a Valentine’s Day encounter with comet Tempel 1. (more…)

NASA Comet Hunter Spots Its Valentine

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2011Sciencecomet nucleus, comet tempel 1, deep impact mission, feb 14, flight path, images of comet, joe veverka, jupiter, NASA, new exploration of temple, stardust, stardust navigation camera, stardust next mission, stardust spacecraft, tempel 1, trajectory, valentine day

NASA’s Stardust spacecraft has downlinked its first images of comet Tempel 1, the target of a flyby planned for Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. The images were taken on Jan. 18 and 19 from a distance of 26.3 million kilometers (16.3 million miles), and 25.4 million kilometers (15.8 million miles) respectively. On Feb. 14, Stardust will fly within about 200 kilometers (124 miles) of the comet’s nucleus.

“This is the first of many images to come of comet Tempel 1,” said Joe Veverka, principal investigator of NASA’s Stardust-NExT mission from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. “Encountering something as small and fast as a comet in the vastness of space is always a challenge, but we are very pleased with how things are setting up for our Valentine’s Day flyby.” (more…)

Tag Archives: stardust spacecraft

NASA Releases Images of Man-Made Crater on Comet

Two-timing Spacecraft Has Date with Another Comet

NASA Comet Hunter Spots Its Valentine